Supporting RCS in Apple's Messages app, even a little bitĪpple should consider bringing RCS support to iOS 16. However, there are a few changes Apple could make to address this issue, similar to the way it brought a limited FaceTime experience to Android and Windows users in iOS 15. We’re asking Apple to support the industry standard for modern messaging (RCS) in iMessage, just as they support the older SMS / MMS standards.- Hiroshi Lockheimer January 10, 2022 We’re not asking Apple to make iMessage available on Android. Other features that are already in iMessage, such as group chat encryption, are still in development for RCS and Google's Messages app. While RCS isn't currently interoperable with iOS, Google has built cross-platform message reactions into its texting app to improve how texts from an iPhone appear within Android. But its rollout has been fragmented as US phone carriers each separately announced plans to make RCS the default option on most Android phones. RCS supports many iMessage-like features such as typing indicators and read receipts. Google is continuing this proprietary texting strategy alongside its RCS investment, most recently by shutting down its Hangouts app and migrating users into the Google Chat app instead.

The company's investment in both the RCS standard and its Messages app comes after a long history of launching proprietary texting apps that did not gain the notoriety of iMessage or Meta's WhatsApp. Google reported at this year's I/O developer conference in May that Google Messages has a half billion monthly active users.

While RCS itself is an open standard, the most common way people are using it is within Google's Messages app on Android phones. Rich Communication Services, or RCS, is the closest alternative that potentially wouldn't require installing yet another chat app. There is no single, modern texting standard that works across all phones. While social pressures among those that do and do not show up as a blue bubble have been frequently documented, such as in the Wall Street Journal among teens and young people, the much bigger issue revolves around universal communication. Apple also relies on the dated MMS standard for non-iMessage group chats, which results in a lack of support for modern features like read receipts and higher-quality images.

But it's also inadvertently created a long history of separating people into 'blue' and 'green' bubbles based on whether they're using an iPhone or Android phone. Since Apple has full control over its messaging platform, iPhone owners get a consistent experience that works well regardless of the carrier or specific iPhone model. Apple's iMessage is getting a major overhaul later this year with iOS 16, but most of these new features, like unsending a message or editing a text, will only work if the person you are texting also has an iPhone.

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